Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Sycamore?

I keep reading that bamboo and willows make great crappie structures. I have to drive a ways to find willow, don't know if I can find bamboo. But... I have tons of sycamore. Anyone know if it's as good as willow for attracting fish? Trying to decide if I should make the drive or just use what's on hand.

Thanks in advance for insights!

I used to fish a large private reservoir just SE of you (near Sedan).

The sycamore seed balls used to float to the shorelines and establish rapidly-growing trees right at the edge of the water.

When they got large enough (20-25'), they would let us hinge cut them into the lake. Many died immediately, but some lived for several years after they were felled.

They were awesome bass cover! On several occasions we would pull ten spotted bass and 1-2 LMB from a single tree using crankbaits in the spring.

There was a steep bluff on one side of the lake, so the top of a 25' sycamore tree might be in 12-15' of water. In the summer when it was hard to catch bass, you could throw a texas-rig plastic worm into the thick branches near the bottom and still pull out some bass.

I am not an expert, but IMO if you have some sycamore trees that aren't adding to your land enjoyment, I would fell them and drag them into your lake. On your steeper shores, you might be able to just pin the butt of the trunk onto the shore line. On your shallower banks, I might drag them away from the shore a bit with your pontoon boat, and then cable 2-3 together and sink them.

Occasionally the private lake would flood in the spring right after we felled trees. Sometimes a few would break free and wind up on the rip rap at the dam face. Those sycamore trees also produced numerous bass. I think the spotted bass would lurk in the tree cover and then eat every single crayfish that ventured out of the rip rap. You would lip the bass in the spring and every one caught there had crayfish feelers sticking up out of their craws!

I am surprised on a watershed lake the size of yours that you do NOT have rip rap on the dam. I wonder if you are one of the oldest ones? If you ever wanted more cover, I think two dump truck loads of rip rap size stone dumped on heavy landscape fabric might do good things - especially if combined with some trees.

I don't like to just lay them over like hing cutting as it floods often and those end up making a mess. Anything I put in is weighted down and sunk is a certain spot. Otherwise it's just a mess waiting to happen.


Ive put in hundreds of tons of rocks along the north bank. Many dump truck loads! Just none on the dam. It might be one of the first. Not sure on dates.

Nice!

Has that rocky shore been producing catches of fish? It is certainly different habitat than the rest of the lake.

(I have only muddy shorelines.)

Not much in the way of fish. It's the north shore line that receives a lot of wind/waves in the summer. It's silted and shallow. The rocks stopped the erosion, but didn't provide much structure for fishing. I do think it's helped the crawfish population though.